Bulgarian unemployment in June 2010 at 9.26%
Unemployment in Bulgaria in June 2010 marked another slight decrease, down to 9.26 per cent thanks to the steadily rising number of seasonal employment due to the summer season, Labour Minister Totyo Mladenov told the Bulgarian news agency (BTA) on July 2 2010.The number of unemployed in May were 9.53 per cent, while in April, the levels dropped for the first time below 10 per cent, at 9.95 per cent. June was the fourth consecutive month in which unemployment in Bulgaria declined.Mladenov, speaking during a visit to the Bulgarian port city of Varna, said that over the course of the last four months, official unemployment level has dropped by a full percentage point.However, there was also a rise in the number of people employed in the country's grey economy, he said.The euro area (EA16) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was at 10.0 per cent in May 2010, unchanged compared with April4, although it had risen slightly from 9.4 per cent in May 2009. Meanwhile the EU27 unemployment rate was 9.6 per cent in May 2010, unchanged compared with April According to data released on the Eurostat website, about 23.1 million men and women in the EU, including 15.8 million in the euro area, were unemployed in May 2010, a decrease of 37 000 from the previous month in the EU and 35 000 in the euro zone.